If we had insisted then on better mileage standards we would have more money now. This is at least a step in the correct direction to have more societal wealth in the future. Probably should set 50 as the minimum standard for a 4 passenger vehicle... we could do it in 1980 we should be able to do it again in 2011

i can't speak for the cost of running a diesel car in the US, but in my experience here in the UK it's undoubtedly cheaper to run a second-hand diesel:

it costs roughly the same to buy a petrol or diesel car. same servicing costs. same road fund licence. same insurance cost. cheaper maintanence - diesel engines tend to cover more miles before needing major attention or scrapping because they're sturdier and made to higher tolerance levels to withstand higher operating pressures. about 40% cheaper fuel bill (i see 60+ mpg with mine).

if you're buying new than it's a different story - but who buys new cars?

sounds good, but there's a cost benefit argument there. you could buy a decent second-hand diesel car for about 10% of the price of something like this and get close to or better than 40% thermal efficiency (thanks to the high expension ratio)

I keep thinking how much Toyota's goal might be similar to Smokey Yunick's "adiabatic" engines from the 1970's. He did some kind of high compression lean-burn high EGR turbocharged thing that doubled the fuel economy of conventional cars with no loss of power.

Diesels can get pretty good, yes. More of them should have been bought in the past.